FRANKLIN—The Walgreens Co. pharmacy on College Drive has won a major award from the company.

Located at 100 South College Drive, the Walgreens pharmacy in Franklin has been named Pharmacy of the Year for 2009 for the company’s Virginia Beach district.

“We won the award primarily because of our commitment to patient care and our involvement in the community,” said pharmacy manager Sharon Hasty.

Citing an example of the pharmacy’s commitment to the community, Hasty said Walgreens would again have a booth at this weekend’s Franklin Fall Festival. The pharmacy also has a prescription savings club, which works with patients and doctors in trying to find lower-cost alternative drugs.

“We try to take an active role in trying to help patients save money,” Hasty said.

Pharmacist Courtney Councill said customer service was very important to the other employees.

“We really try to know everybody by their name,” Councill said. “We to try to make a close-knit family with our patients.”

Hasty added, “I think we have a great team here, and everyone is from the community. I couldn’t do it without the other people that work here. We really do care about the people here. They’re more than just patients and prescriptions. I think that’s what makes us different.”

Robert Elfinger, spokesman for the Deerfield, Ill.-based company, said Tuesday that its Virginia Beach district comprises 34 stores located in the cities of Virginia Beach, Suffolk, Portsmouth, Norfolk, Newport News, Hampton, Chesapeake and Franklin and one in Yorktown in York County.

Walgreens opened at its current location, a former store of Rite Aid Corp., in July 2006. At the same time, Rite Aid moved across the street to take over a former Eckerd Corp. franchise. The move was part of Rite Aid’s 2007 merger with Eckerd.